BIG TEAM's "Big U" project is certainly ambitious. The group wants to build a U-shaped wall around the 8 miles of Manhattan waterfront from West 54th Street down to Battery Park and up to East 40th Street. Each of the neighborhoods will decide what it wants to use as a buffer against storm surges. The communities could have anything from a plain wall or tiered shelter to a skate park or walled garden. BIG TEAM hopes that these protective measures will be attractions more than eyesores obstructing residents' views of the water.

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Project: Coastal Commercial Resiliency Financing

Team: HR&A Advisors with Cooper, Robertson & Partners

HR&A wants to get areas to commit to more resilient infrastructures, either through individual improvements or wide-scale building of public safeguards such as sidewalk berms and porous roads to soak up water. From now until March 2014, HR&A will gauge interest in such a program, and then the team will start estimating the measures needed to improve storm-proofing and how much they will cost. If HR&A gets enough interest from the business owners, it will then work with lenders to make sure small businesses get the money they need in times of crisis.

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Project: Living with the Bay: Resiliency-Building Options for Nassau County's South Shore

Team: Interboro Partners

Sandy pounded southern Nassau County on Long Island last year, and the surge from Hewlett Bay inundated the towns of East Rockaway, Island Park, and Long Beach. This plan from Interboro Partners involves adapting the landscape, elevating homes, and putting in greater protection for vulnerable structures such as the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant. During the hurricane, the plant dumped billions of gallons of untreated sewage into the environment and homes surrounding it. Interboro's plan would construct a levee around the plant to protect it from future flooding—and it would double as a recreational spot.

On Long Beach Island, the team proposes building a system of ditches along the medians of north/south streets so that the rising water from Hewlett Bay can recede back into the ocean instead of flowing up onto land and destroying property. Interboro Partners argues that more affordable housing is needed in higher elevation neighborhoods with better transportation options, so it will look to increase mixed-use, multi-generational housing in Nassau County. But for those who do not want to move their homes farther from the water, Interboro will work on ways to adapt their homes to rising sea levels.

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Project: New Meadowlands: Productive City + Regional Park

Team: MIT+ZUS+URBANISTEN

The MIT+ZUS+URBANISTEN project focuses on the Meadowlands. The Hackensack River runs right through this wetland area in northeast New Jersey, making the region more susceptible to flooding. The wetlands help absorb some of the storm surge, and the team wants to gradually convert substantial parts of the Meadowlands to a park. The park will protect the area from flooding and revitalize the ecosystem, for not only wildlife but also people.

Team OMA also chose to focus on New Jersey, proposing a four-step plan for the city of Hoboken to deal with catastrophic events like Hurricane Sandy. The "resist" in the proposal refers to the need to increase hard infrastructure and soft landscape that will buffer against flooding. For example, building parkland and soft ground areas around the cove will increase how much water the ground can take on before becoming saturated. The team also wants to build up the city's coastal defense along the shore to delay flooding and storm surges. If the water does advance past these barriers, greenways such as the New Jersey Transit rail yards can gather and trap water, where pumps can be installed for drainage.

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Project: Hunts Point/Lifelines

Team: PennDesign/OLIN

The Hunts Point neighborhood of the south Bronx did not suffer as much damage from Sandy as other areas, but team PennDesign/OLIN wants to focus on it as a commercial hub that needs protecting. The NYC Produce Terminal Market at Hunts Point employs more than 25,000 people and brings in more than $2 billion annually. PennDesign/OLIN wants to shield the market by developing a locally manufactured levee with vegetation mats that would aid in water absorption. The team also proposes what it calls a cleanway, or a canal, built on the site of a former creek that would collect storm water. The canal would be equipped with catchment and treatment cells to cleanse any waterborne chemicals that might overflow from the nearby wastewater treatment plant during a storm. It would also build a floodgate/pedestrian walkway at the entrance to the Bronx River to stem some of the flooding.

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Project: Resilience + The Beach

Team: Sasaki/Rutgers/Arup

The damage to the Jersey Shore from last year's superstorm was so extensive that the design team of Sasaki/Rutgers/Arup wants to implement three fixes. The first would be a pier built to connect the barrier islands to the mainland near Seaside Heights, Toms River, and Berkeley Township. The team says the new pier would draw tourism revenue and bring development inland, away from the exposed barrier island. The second is for a boardwalk along the headlands of Asbury Park, which would not only serve as an attractive public space, but would also help capture sand and form dunes to bolster seaside protection from storm surges while reducing erosion and the need for sand replenishment. Lastly, S/R/A wants to build marinas in the towns of Union Beach and Keansburg, which lie on either side of Natco Lake.

The unabridged Coastal Collective is taking an educational approach to its design opportunity. The team's project, the only finalist that would be built in Connecticut, would construct a "Green Collar Institute" to educate Bridgeport residents in green industrial processes, construction salvage, landscaping, and site remediation. The team wants to use University of Bridgeport faculty to teach the training programs in renewable energy and materials development. It will also establish satellite projects to build workforce housing, to set up renewable-energy practices, and to develop more complete street connections that can serve as pathways for receding storm water.

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Project: Designing with Nature for the Future of the Mid-Atlantic Coast

Team: WXY/West8

WXY/West8's plan stresses the need for better governance, insurance, and communication. The team will set up a new framework for insurance coverage, one that emphasizes a regional approach. It will also organize a regional governmental body with the specific goal of coastal management. The organization would be made up of representatives from the various regions along the mid-Atlantic coast. WXY/West8 warns that Sandy was not a once-in-a-lifetime event, and superstorms are likely to happen more frequently, something the residents in affected areas need to be more aware of.

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